Catholic Charities of Fairfield County President Al Barber, right, greets Rudy Giuliani at the Amber Room Colonnade during the Annual Fall Celebrity Breakfast for Catholic Charities of Greater Danbury, in ... more

Rudy Giuliani talks with Dr. John Murphy, president and chief executive officer of Western Connecticut Health Network, at the Amber Room Colonnade during the Annual Fall Celebrity Breakfast for Catholic Charities of Greater Danbury, in Danbury, Conn. Thursday, Oct. 24, 2013. less

Rudy Giuliani talks with Dr. John Murphy, president and chief executive officer of Western Connecticut Health Network, at the Amber Room Colonnade during the Annual Fall Celebrity Breakfast for Catholic ... more

A large crowd turns out to hear Rudy Giuliani speak at the Amber Room Colonnade during the Annual Fall Celebrity Breakfast for Catholic Charities of Greater Danbury, in Danbury, Conn. Thursday, Oct. 24, 2013.

A large crowd turns out to hear Rudy Giuliani speak at the Amber Room Colonnade during the Annual Fall Celebrity Breakfast for Catholic Charities of Greater Danbury, in Danbury, Conn. Thursday, Oct. 24, 2013.

DANBURY -- New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani had just finished the first draft of his book on crisis leadership at the start of September 2001.

With just a few months left in his administration, he slipped the manuscript into his desk at City Hall with the thought that after his term ended, he could take some time to polish the book, a relatively simple task given his experience in emergency management as mayor.

Giuliani spoke before a packed house at the Amber Room Colonnade for the Catholic Charities of Greater Danbury's Fall Celebrity Breakfast. During a more than 40-minute address, punctuated frequently by applause and occasionally by a laugh, Giuliani recounted his experience leading New York, and some would argue the nation, through a traumatic time. He pointed to similarities between 9/11 in New York City and 12/14 in Newtown.

Giuliani turned his attention to Monsignor Robert Weiss, pastor of Newtown's St. Rose of Lima Church, which became the spiritual epicenter of the community after Dec. 14, 2012.

"You either face (tragedy) and help other people or you don't," Giuliani said. "And he stood up for a whole community under a tremendous situation."

Whether it's the family of a firefighter recreating their loved one's heroic run through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel to get to ground zero to save lives before losing his own, or a Newtown priest who opened his arms and the doors of his parish to a community shattered by sudden, senseless violence, Giuliani said, it's important to think of the good that emerges from tragedy.

"But think about all the people that embraced you, all the people who care about you," Giuliani said. "It's not going to make it go away but it's going to put it in proper perspective."

Bishop Frank Caggiano, of the Diocese of Bridgeport, spoke after Giuliani, commending Weiss and his parish community for their "willingness to live love in the face of evil."

"In the moments of greatest tragedy is when the people of God shine the brightest -- when they live love in the face of evil," Caggiano said.

In the days after 9/11, and after weeks attending funerals and preparing for possible additional attacks, Giuliani said he returned to his office at city hall to find his manuscript on crisis leadership caked in the dust from the fallen World Trade Center towers that settled over lower Manhattan.

"When I looked at it, I realized how arrogant I'd been," he said.

So, once he finished his term, he returned to his keyboard with knowledge of trauma and loss and of triumph and love.

He made sure to point out the latter at the end of every news conference, interview or conversation about 9/11.

To all the people stuck staring at ground zero in anger or confusion, he would tell them to "lift their eyes up and look to the future, because there would be a future and it would be better."

At the time he had doubts about that idea, at best "a prayer, a hope -- maybe it was a boast." But he wanted the agenda for the people of New York to be clear.

"We're going to show them we're going to become stronger," he would tell them.

Twelve years later, he feels his city proved him right.

Lower Manhattan, a neighborhood people in 2001 questioned ever returning to, now has twice the residential population and more businesses calling it home than before the attacks, he said.

"And I love that," he said. "It shows that people can be resilient."

But resilience does not erase the memories of tragedy.

"There isn't a day that goes by that it doesn't come back to me," he said.